I recently read Howard's entire body of work in chronological order, and was impressed to see his storytelling getting stronger and more complex as time went on. Howard was plotting his next move--into Western fiction, which was growing in popularity at the time--but that arc was cut short when he committed suicide. We lost a lot when Howard died. He was the "Conan" author but was so much more than that.

When I was a kid, my Dad was an avid reader. A great sports coach who taught me many things. A newspaper writer and a PR guy. He got a job with a multi-national corporation in the 60s. He would travel for months overseas. I missed him. He told me how he would wake up and not know what country he was in. He read a lot on the airplanes. He brought the books home and gave them to me. He handed me the lancer edition of Conan the Conqueror with the great Frazetta cover. I have read it 3 times (so far). I have all of the Lancers and all but one or two of the Zebras. I haven't read all of them. When I read the Lancers, I can feel right away when a story has not been written by Howard himself. I skip these (and maybe get to them later). Now I keep a close eye on the copyright pages. Didn't know the Mac Art stories were posthumous. Thank you for that info. I recently read Almuric and I loved it, but it does not feel like prose written by Howard. It was published after his death and many think it was not written by him. I agree. Possibly by Otis Adelbert Kline, but I find Kline not so great so far, while I find Almuric to be great. Just not Robert E. Howard's writing style. The new volumes you speak of by Del Rey are, I agree, fantastic. I still have a lot more Howard adventures ahead. What a great writer. His prose is a pleasure to read. It can't be faked. Thank you for your enthusiastic reviews.

I started reading Howard in 1971 as an 11 year old. I've been fascinated ever sense. His prose is impeccable and just fun to read. By far my favorite author.

This was really great to watch. Hearing someone talking about an author they love is always a wonderful treat.

If Howard were alive today, I think he would be a big metalhead. His books and stories read like badass power metal fantasies and black metal nightmares come to life. He’s criminally underrated. I love all his sword and sorcery stuff.

"He didn't follow the rules....he talked about fight club"...great stuff!

I remember when my friend came home from vacation with a couple Conan books. This was late sixties and once I read one I started to read everything I could find! Thank you Robert E Howard!

It would be great if someone published a multi-volume complete set (in chronological order) of Robert E Howard. Something like “The Collected Fantasies of Clark Ashton Smith”. The Del Rey books are awesome, but I’d love a set of books that had *all* his fiction in the order he wrote it.

The Del Rey volumes are the same content as the Wandering Star editions. Excellent stuff!

Awesome collection, and can't wait to one day go to see the Howard-Day parade!

You mean you were always cool 😎? Wow, I had no idea Robert E. Howard wrote in so many genres or sub genres! What a prolific writer and creative mind. I love your collection!

Captivating, fascinating discussion. Like you, I sought out those books, and I recognize, and still own, the majority of what you held up. Bravo, sir. Well done, indeed.

This was therapeutic. My intro was via this channel ! For booktrek I read: Ignition! An Informal History of Liquid Rocket Propellants by John Drury Clark. Coincidentally, Clark was a huge Robert E Howard fan and was instrumental in publishing some Conan books in the 50's.

We had a pretty similar experience. I'm probably a few years older though. I got my start with the Ace book series. The Howard stories were always noticeably better than Carter and DeCamp's. But at this point, I consider them part of the canon. For better or worse, lol. Thanks for bringing back those pre-internet memories! It's been so long ago, I tend to forget what that was like.

Those Del Rey collections are absolutely wonderful.

I've never read Howard until the Del Rey editions. What a wonderful introduction into his work. Thanks for the retrospective

Great episode! My intro to REHoward: I was 13 years old, too. My 7th grade English teacher loved Conan. At the end of the school year, he handed me a big paper grocery bag full of books and said, "Read these this summer." It was all the Lancer Conan paperbacks! (This would've been 1972.) So I read 'em all that summer -- when I wasn't doing chores, when I was riding in the backseat of the car, whenever and wherever. Wow, what an introduction. Admittedly, cramming all that Conan into one summer kinda burned me out on Conan. But it was a great time for REHoward, and I found out about other Howard characters and books. In these days before the internet (before cable TV, even!), I relied on mail order dealers and soon owned The Swords of Shahrazar and The Lost Valley of Iskander, both published by FAX and illustrated by Michael Kaluta. (I owned that SKULLFACE AND OTHERS as well, but I didn't like trying to read that tiny font.) I ended up enjoying his other characters very much. THEN . . . about two years ago, I stumbled across all the illustrated Del Rey editions of the Conan books at a thrift store for 50 cents each. So now I'm rereading the Conan stories again.

Thanks so much for doing this video. It reminds me of all the books I searched used book stores for when I was a teenager. And I didn’t live anywhere near book store. It was a jungle.

I was introduced to REH through the movies and now I am currently reading the Del Rey edition of El Borak.

Like your informative show on Robert E. Howard. I first began reading a Howard paperback circa 1986, but it was added to by L. Sprague De Camp and Lin Carter, but mostly pastiche. Blech!! 😝 I still have the Del Rey Conan collections sitting in my home library. Some of these stories I will re-read at a later date. As a purist like you, Michael, I prefer reading Conan the way Howard depicted him. REH may have had imitators, but his writing style was uniquely his own: nobody else in his time could bring a tale to life the way he did. He might've written more western stories had he not shot himself. Who can say for sure? 😢 Many thanks for the overview of Howard's work, and for spotlighting this grossly underrated, yet prolific, Texan writer. 🗡

Michael, outstanding video, yes i miss all those little run down old bookstores run by cantankerous old guys who knew books so well. Those were the days. I read the Lancer Howard paperbacks and devoured them all, incredible writing, stories and characters. I lived that hardcover of Red Nails, and the Lancer book with Beyond the Black River! What a great Conan story! So much great stuff. I even liked some of the pastiche Conan, and of course the great Barry Smith art on those early Marvel Comics. Ah, simply magical reading!

I love your channel. Thanks for keeping on making videos after that kerfuffle. I also love Howard and am a purist. Love the audio book collection of his originals.

I came late to the REH game. Really into Hero's Quest and D & D. I liked the Conan movies and sword/sorcery. Really REH was so special. Glad I found him.

"I didn't know about Sword Woman". Well, I didn't know about Sword Woman either. Nor that he wrote boxing stories, nor a lot of the other fascinating details in this video. So thank you, for this wonderful and personal overview of the works of Robert E. Howard!

My favorite type of BookTube video -- great info about an author, great info about the BookTuber, some nifty covers, some fun history. Five stars!

Fascinating great video!

Great video, Michael. Your experience mirrors my own, though I began my Howard-obsessed journey a wee bit earlier. Read my first Conan comic in '71 and began reading Howard in '77 (I was 11). In 1980, future best selling author Laurell K Hamilton (whom I went to school with) introduced me to Pigeons from Hell and Two Guns' horror fiction. His occult detective stories don't get near enough love, especially the Kirowan and Conrad tales.

Well, I enjoyed this episode of storytime, made me remember the wonderful old second hand book shops we used to have here too and the Saturday mornings spent exploring for treasures. Didn't realise Robert E. Howard wrote about everything including the kitchen sink. Do you think that was part of his mental health problem, jumping from subject to subject, or that he just had the ability to spin yarns about everything?

Thanks for the comprehensive view of Howard. I learned many things. I enjoyed seeing all the cover art. You showed so many books, it must have been like moving furniture around your library!

I was introduced to Howard and Conan when I was 9. I got my tonsils removed and people brought me get well gifts. I recall getting a copy of Shelley's 'Frankenstein', Herbert's 'Dune' and plastic western/army figures. Someone else got me a copy of the Conan comic, issue 138, and Conan the Adventurer from the Lancer/Ace books. I still have my original copy of Adventurer but read the comic until it fell apart but do have a replacement copy. I was instantly a fan. I remember being disappointed when my mom tried to order me the other eleven books and only three were available as that print of the books had gone out of print before a repackaging a number of years later. Wasn't until high school when I was actually going to school in the city and had better access to the main branch of the county library system was I able to read anything other than Conan.

I'm reading the Robert E. Howard Conan three volume Del Rey collection right now.

I really enjoyed this one Mike. Watched it twice already. Your backstory was very similar to mine except I was on the east coast. I was hitting the used bookstores in my neck of the woods, looking for Tarzan, Conan, other REH characters, along with Doc Savage, the Shadow, and the Spider. I know all too well that feeling of finding that book you've been searching for. I think if we grew up in the same area, we would've been good friends.

Cthulhu was my very first vintage REH book. I remember that very introduction. I'd .been reading Conan comics all through my teen years. But that wasnt the real Howard. I really didn't know what I was missing! The truth is that even Howard's original Conan stories bordered on being horror.

I really wish I had discovered Howard as a youngling and had a lifelong relationship with his work - it probably would have kept me reading more the last 2 decades. As it was I knew one Savage Sword comic that one of my brothers had, a cool story about were-panthers that I don't think was adapted from Howard - and I enjoyed the Arnold movies at some point, but I had no idea it was a drawn from this one talented 30's pulp writer, that I'm tirelessly getting though this year. Do the Del Ray collections cover all the REH writings, including his poetry? I really like his poem snippets so far, and the King and the Oak.

Really enjoyable thanks. I started reading Robert E Howard from Conan books in the late 70s (U.K.) There’s no doubt obviously that the Howard stories are by far superior, but I’ve alway liked Lin Carter in a bonkers way. Let’s not forget he inspired David Gemmel to write (😉). There’s an Appendix to a book called Drell Master where Lin Carter sets out his formula for writing Sword and Sorcery fiction. If you have never read it, it’s worth buying the book for!

I think The Iron Man was my first REH story.

🎵It’s the Robert E. Howard Show!🎵 One of the best videos you’ve posted! ❤ I’m anxious to start reading my new copy of Del Rey’s Sword Woman!

Awesome video, Michael. Years ago I read a lot of the stories you mentioned, many from the same books that you own. I have read all the twelve Conan books published in the 80's which were edited by de Camp and Carter. The Howard stories I have read and reread many times but the Carter and de Camp I have not reread. Ironically, one of the converted Conan stories was lifted directly from an El Borak story. The former I did not think very impressive but I absolutely loved the latter. I have since then read and reread all the El Borak stories and is one of my favorite of all the Howard series. They are pure adventure and lots of fun.

I really enjoyed your video. I got started with Howard when I was about 13 or 14 back in the '70s. First with the Lancer paperback books, and then with the Marvel comics illustrated by Barry Smith. Eventually I collected everything I could find by Howard. Great stuff!

I've got all the novels on del Rey editions..there are like 10 .. beautiful. Thank you for showing this

It was a lot of fun to see someone else's history with Howard's work. It brought back great memories as you talked about the comic shop, scouring used bookstores, finding treasures here and there in the pre-Internet days. I have a much more sympathetic/fond feeling for those old Ace paperbacks, since they were an early exposure to Howard for me, and even with L. Sprague de Camp and Lin Carter adding to and tampering with things, they brought those works to new readers. All those books you held up bring back great memories, too. I still have my Wagner set, which I completed way back with the help of Glenn Lord. I couldn't locate People of the Black Circle to finish my set, and on a hope for help (again, no Internet), I wrote him a letter requesting any publishing information. He wrote back telling me that it was out of print, but with the name of a dealer he knew that might have a copy. That's the one that I now own.

Great, familiar collection! I started with REH when I was about 10 (Ace series, Berkeley, Zebra) and have been a fan ever since, though my interest waxed and waned at times. Now, I’m back in the fold for good.

Michael I turned 13 in 1984 too, but I didn't start reading Conan till 2022. Better late than never.

I pretty much share your experience, starting with the Marvel comic and discovering the paperbacks later on.

A great video! Thanks!

Lol, you crap me up. I was in the military in the early 80s. I thought it was great how I got good deals at the record shops because cassette tapes were the rage, and people were not buying albums as much! For some reason, I never really got into comics, but I had a couple of friends who were; one collected Spiderman, and another one used to get from the publisher the Fantastic Four and something else that I can't remember. When the comics came in the mail, the Fantastic Four friend would wear gloves to take them out of the clear-slip, read them, put them black in the slip, and store them in this box he had for such things. It is amazing that you still have stuff from when you were a kid - that is awesome.

You made this video for me! But seriously, I never knew Howard churned out so much stuff. Anyway, my Conan infatuation started after the first movie. I wanted more detail in the stories. So I read the books and wanted more. I went to a comic show and one of the vendors was selling a Conan comic collection from #1 to about #100 and bought them all. Then he said he had many of the Savage Swords and Savage Tales. I had to have those too. But it's cool to see somebody else that much into it. By the way, who is your favorite Conan comic artist? Barry Windsor Smith or John Buscema or?

Excellent!

In the 1980’s growing up my dad had a walk in closet which had REH’s Conan books so before I got into the comics. I got to read most of the stories tho I believe I saw the movie first and looked at the books and realized I liked the movie.

Wow ... you have great collection of REH paperbacks! I have a couple of those. Just preserved my copy of The Road of Azrael as a hardcover so it wouldn't disintegrate further. I need to pick up the Del Rey Best ofs, Vol 1 & 2 to complete that collection. Probably hard cover those eventually. Curious: have you or anyone else read the Robert Jordan pastiches? .... was thinking of checking those out.

Michael, have you ever seen the biopic The Whole Wide World, based on the Novalyne Price Ellis memoir? Vincent D'Onofrio plays Howard and Renée Zellweger plays Ellis. It's a favorite of mine, though I realize it's a somewhat romanticized portrait.

Savage Sword of Conan was my adolescent gateway to boobs and gore. I wish I still had all my battered copies.

Your Howard origin story is just like mine except it was in 1972. I was one of the few comic book Sci/fi people in my town. I grew up in a tiny (300 people?) Farm town on the great Plains. There everything was farming, trucks, and football and l liked none of that. The only place to get anything was a small community drug store with a single spinner rack for comic s , one shelf for PB books, and 1 magazine rack. I'm the Navy I later found used book stores and comics shops and haunted them constantly. There I found most of Howard and Burroughs books and love them all.

You are such a classy and charming man

Those Fantasy Masterworks editions of the Conan stories were from 2000 and 2001, so they were a bit later than those Baen editions but just before the Del Rey ones.

This was great seeing how you got going with Howard 😊. Pigeons from Hell… is that one appropriately titled?

Ahhh used bookstores. My childhood was spent in libraries and used bookstores. It was not a youth misspent.

This was a fun trip down memory lane. Fun thumbnail graphic too. I assume that was you back in the 1980s. I was alive back then, so I could understand much of what you were talking about. Peace.

Have you ever seen an influence from Lovecraft and Howard upon Gene Wolfe?

Do you remember the little used bookstore in Hayward that also sold comics? Such a nice guy who used to order comics for you and Ed McBain books for me. I remember the San Leandro comic shop. Like you said, all gone now.

Do have and started reading the first Conan stories.....I still think I prefer his horror stories.

I enjoy your reviews. Do you know if there any Solomon Kane collections or novels that were NOT written by Howard that you would recommend? What do you do for a Solomon Kane fix once you've read all the Howard works? There seem to be tons of Conan books written by others, but no stories about Solomon Kane written by others.

Do you have a recommendation on which Howard edition to get for the Kindle? I’m concerned some of these editions will not be good? They are cheap and a quite a few to choose from.

“Notoriously”? I’d say ‘infamously’.

I think only maybe one story in sword woman was written by Howard.

“Robert E. Howard was interesting and nobody could imitate him. Because Howard was crazy as a bed bug. He was insane. (…) He lived in Cross Plains, Texas in the middle of the Depression and never went more than 20 or 30 miles from his home. He lived with his mother until his mother died and the he went down and sat in the car and blew his brains out. Now, that’s a sick person. This is not a happy, adjusted person. That shows up in Howard’s work. (…) (imitators) can’t imitate Howard because they are not crazy. They are just writers writing stories because they admired Howard, but they don’t understand they have to be bugf-k to write that way.” - Harlan Ellison

I'm a professional cartoonist that is producing an unexpurgated ( and very 70s era, "Savage Sword" ) version of Black Canaan for my own pleasure. I know that in the current environment of moral hysteria that it cannot be published, which ads an extra sweetness to making it. Sooner or later all good works are found and published. This one will be waiting like an undying spider under a rock for that day to come. Until then, you can find me sipping a julep in the shade of a mossy ol' willow tree somewhere between Tularoosa and the Black River.

lmao I started at the same time lol

Great episode! Everyone has a Robert E. Howard origin story and it sounds like yours is pretty similar to mine. I started with the Conan comics and soon after I found a few of the Ace Conan books, but like you, once I realized that they weren't pure Howard I wanted to read his unedited work. I bought Berkley's Marchers of Valhalla paperback at Coles bookstore brand new in 1978. It said Conan in big letters on the cover and I thought at first it was Conan..I neglected to see 'By the creator of...' in small letters, but reading that was like a bomb going off in my head. After that I was obsessed with Howard's work and I scowered every bookstore I could find for his books. I was lucky enough to buy all the Berkley books new off the shelf (I'm a little older than you) and the obsession has continued to this day!